


Self Soothing

by Nny11



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Best Friends, Canon Compliant, Cleaning, Family Fluff, Feel-good, Friendship, Gen, Gift Fic, Gift Work, Horde World Building, Moving Meditation, Post-Season/Series 02, Self-Reflection, Slice of Life, soft fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 09:28:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,458
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22054822
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Nny11/pseuds/Nny11
Summary: Adora takes some free time to actually, finally relax in a way that works best for her. It's time to clean her room!
Comments: 6
Kudos: 24





	Self Soothing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dragonesdepapel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonesdepapel/gifts).



> Happy New Year and Happy (belated) Holidays [Dragonesdepapel!](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonesdepapel/pseuds/dragonesdepapel)

Adora knows that many of her needs and habits from the Fright Zone have come with her here to Brightmoon. Some she’s unlearning (it turns out the proper protocol regarding greeting the Queen is just to say hello politely, no need for saluting and/or bowing every time), but there’s plenty she’s happy to keep. And there’s a comfort to her routine. She can only grin a little at Glimmer’s distraught face when she elected to spend her day cleaning and organizing her room, but had successfully remembered to play up it being her day off to do what she wanted to.

And she  _ really  _ wanted to.

Cleaning was something she could do successfully with minimal need to overthink it before hand. She could control every facet of it, take her time, be meticulous, and come out of it not only with a more comfortable space but one actually suited to her. So she gets her way and after returning from breakfast, Adora is ready to tackle the day.

She starts at her bed, as always. Pulling the flat sheet tight and tucking the corners perfectly before putting on her top sheet and pillow. A few moments later and she’s folded her night shirt up tight and small, her sleeping shorts rolled up and tucked underneath the shirt. The whole thing is propped up on her pillow like a display instead of put away in a locker. Adora had been a little inspired by the way someone had folded and placed towels on her pillow at Mystacore. And looking at it now, she has to say it looks very nice.

Her shoulders relax as she stands for a moment, listening to the birds outside her open window and the waterfall softly splashing away. Adora takes a slow deep breath in before letting it back out.

Her next task is just to enclose her bed in her new curtain. Something thick and heavy to mute sounds at night, to make the space a little darker the way she grew up. Make it feel a little tighter and contained. It had been Bow’s suggestion on listening to her complain about lack of sleep. 

_ “Maybe you should make it more like your bunk?” Bow tapped a finger on his chin. “But not as life threatening?” _

_ Adora huffed as she looked at her bed. She couldn’t tell him the full truth, so she went with a near truth. “Unless your hiding a bunch of machines and green lights somewhere I don’t think that’ll work.”  _

_ “You know we do have green crystals right?” _

So here she is, the new canopy curtain weighted down around her bed, a few small and sickly green crystals placed at various intervals. She knows it’s going to mess up the perfect folding she  _ just _ finished, but Adora still climbs on for a moment. Lies still with her eyes closed. It’s darker for sure, the faint green glow still making it through her eyelids. That alone makes her feel more at ease, but the way the sound goes soft and distant is almost more potent than a sleeping potion. Her hand slips under the pillow and grabs securely at the knife Glimmer had given her.

_ “I don’t get it,” Glimmer admitted with a gentle smile and shrug, “but I also want you to feel safe here. So I don’t need to.” _

Adora stays there for a few more minutes to let the warmth pass through her and the prickle of tears subside. Only finally forcing herself up when she realizes she’s jerked awake from a near nap.

Her bed neatly made once more, Adora ducks back into her room proper. She has traded out the long and short wood dresser for a standing closet with drawers. She dumps her clothes out on her bed before sitting down to properly fold them. Dress shirts hung and compression shirts folded up in tight squares. Pants hung up and shorts all rolled. Small clothes are easily folded and rolled, tucking neatly into a drawer that Adora knew was perfect for it. Glimmer and Bow had both been unsure about her losing so much space for clothes, well wait till they saw this! Turning back to her bed Adora groaned as she glared at her socks.

She still took the time needed, getting them flat and getting the tops stuck in the closet door to pull them tight. Adora hadn’t suffered from lumpy or uneven looking rolled socks in years, she’d always been more than proud to stand next to her locker when inspections came by even as Kyle struggled to make his even resemble a cylinder. The memory lets her pause for a moment. It aches and hurts but it’s still so funny to remember the way he watched Lonnie and her so carefully only to get frustrated and try to cut corners. The way Rogelio would huff and, despite not having socks himself, could always roll them well enough to pass under the inspector’s eye. The way Catra would laugh and wait until the last possible minute to make her bunk up. It’s comforting to think of as she tucks the last of her clothes away, the drawer perfectly sized for her and the closet doors clicking shut softly.

It feels like a weight has been taken off her shoulders to get a little order back in her life.

Emboldened, Adora spreads out her requisitioned (by asking Glimmer and Bow to look in waste bins) old used papers and gets to work cleaning and polishing her dress shoes, dress sandals, and boots. The warm lightly soapy water and the smell of polish is familiar enough to relax her further, even if the cloth and bush she’s using are too new to be hers its familiar. She rubs and brushes, blots and pats and washes. The motions automatic, her brain able to focus just on the task in front of her. Here, in her room, taking care of her possessions makes the world fade away. There’s no war, no missing friends, no new friends or princesses or dignitaries to impress. Adora painstakingly takes the time to make sure her sandals are being properly washed without soaking the sole. It’s like a puzzle and challenge to stay steady and detail oriented on that pair, her tongue poking out in concentration makes her laugh when she catches sight of her own reflection in the newly shined dress shoes.

Her shoes are stored away under her bed, and Adora stays kneeling there for a minute. Breathing in and out, letting the semi darkness of the canopy and the lingering smell of soap ground her.

From there it’s easy enough to organize her desk, piling the papers into “need to do”, “need to keep”, and “need to dispose of”. Pencils are sharpened and tucked in their adorable pull out drawer, her pen is wiped down and ink refilled before going back in its stand. In the Fright Zone she’d shared a dented metal desk with Lonnie and Catra. The space barely big enough for one had never been enough for three cadets needing to study their handbooks, chart out plans and maps, or study the endless equations and codes to memorize all jotted onto a shared set of flash cards. The night before an exam would sometimes find the three of them squabbling over the limited desk space, but never the chair. Catra was happy to sit on the nearby pipe and Lonnie prefering to stand. Her new desk is made of a warm and oily wood, a stiff leather mat placed for her to do her work on. It’s plenty big for one person, in fact Adora had originally assumed she and Glimmer must be sharing it before she saw Glimmer’s woefully underused desk in a corner of her own room.

With the wood wiped down and the new sealing polish applied, there would be no working at the desk for the rest of the day. The wood stool she’d requested to replace the monstrously large and uncomfortably soft armchair took only minutes to clean as well. Tucking neatly under the desk itself with barely a sound on the floor.

The floor. Adora can feel the frown on her as she dumps her disposals into the waste paper basket. She would like to sweep the floor, mop it too, but she hadn’t thought to requisition those supplies in advance. Adora knows there are people called servants (apparently not the same thing as some of the slaves she’d seen on occasion cleaning in the Officer’s Quarters) who came in and swept daily. She knew they mopped at least three times a week. Adora still chewed at her lower lip, some of the released tension returning to her as she looked at the door to the hallway.

The cadet bunkhouse was maintained solely by the cadets in their platoon. Lockers were kept clean and functional, beds made every morning, and the floors swept and mopped daily. Inspections were random for the most part, but daily roll call could become one if even a speck on the floor was out of place.They lost cadets as the training went along of course, reducing from 40 children not tall enough to hang their shirts to the meger 15 of them as Senior Cadets. Cleaning was part of training, it was about discipline but Adora had found it to be the least stressful part of any day. She knew what needed to be done and if she did it, then she succeeded.

And today, on her first real cleaning day in Brightmoon she couldn’t take care of the floors.

_ Glimmer and Bow looked at one another before turning back to her, and Adora could feel her heart drop. What had she done wrong this time? _

_ “You know,” Bow started slowly, a soft smile in place, “if it’s not perfect, that’s okay, right?” _

_ Adora had rolled her eyes and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. She was so tired of being told that! “There’s an order to things Bow. It’s just, it doesn’t feel right to not do it properly.” _

_ “Well how about this, since it has to be done now, we’ll help you get it as close as possible. Then we’ll make a list of things to prepare for next time.” Glimmer said before waggling her eyebrows and sing songing, “I know how much you love lists!” _

_ Adora didn’t like it. Not one bit. But it was logical. Soldiers work with what they have, and no plan survives contact with the enemy. Why should this be any different? _

“Assess, Adapt, and Conquer,” Adora chants the old precept to herself as she looked around the room. The floor wouldn’t  **need** to be mopped, she’d just have to get that next time. But she could still sweep.

Adora tapped her feet, rocking slightly back and forth as she considered how to do it. She’d never been good at standing still for too long. Catra had called it her mission ready mode. Once Adora had a mission, it was all over for the rest of them. Of course this was usually hissed as Adora tugged on her tail to get her helping with whatever plan she had. Cleaning the bunkhouse was usually a time where anyone could watch Adora wrestle Catra out of seemingly impossibly small spaces to help.

Adora snorted as she pictured the many, many times she’d caught Catra casually sweeping something undesirable under a bully’s bunk with her foot or tail. Both a way to not have to sweep everything up, but usually well deserved pay back too. She shouldn't have laughed, but there was just something so funny about the exaggerated innocence Catra put on afterwards.

Wait. Sweeping with her feet.

Adora looked down at her socks and moved her foot back and forth experimentally. She could easily slide around the floor, the smooth stone must be waxed at some point. With a grin, Adora squatted down like she was about to start a race, and started to madly sweep with her socks. She’d made a few circuits and was breathing heavily when the door opened.

“Not to interrupt your- what are you doing?” Glimmer stared at her from the doorway.

Adora could feel herself break into a sweat, shoulders hitching up. “Cleaning?”

Bow popped his head around the corner and Glimmer chuckled, “Do you want a broom?”

“No!” Adora said a little too defensively before backtracking, “This is a really great, uh, work out. Yeah! Work out! Ha ha, anyways, what are you guys up to?”

She was pretty sure her overly casual lean on the closet didn’t work quite the way she’d planned.

“We were gonna get some lunch and figured we’d check in. In case you forgot to eat.” Bow said as he bent over and removed his boots. Underneath he was wearing a pair of hand knit wool socks with hearts on them. “But maybe we can help you before we go!”

“We can race each other!” Glimmer cheered, jumping on one foot to get her own boots off. “You’re both going down!”

And just like that, the building anxiety popped inside her chest. They weren’t here to make fun of her or make comments about the cleaning job. They were just concerned and wanted to help out. It wasn’t a new concept, but she did like that here in Brightmoon you could just be openly concerned. It made her feel warm all over. “That would be great, except, there’s no way I’m losing to a cleaning novice.”

Glimmer fake gasped, clutching at her chest. “Adora I can’t believe it. You? Competitive? Never!”

They were both grinning wildly at each other when Bow laughed nervously. “I’ll clean this part and, uh, referee?”

They looked at each other before getting set in their own parts of the room. “Bring it!”

Racing around with burning thighs, eyes stinging as sweat dripped into them, Adora couldn’t stop smiling. Sure, she hadn’t had the completely quiet day she’d planned on, but this was just as good. The tension left her body completely as she slapped her hand on the wall, laughing as Glimmer growled and huffed, muttering under her breath about finishing strong while her and Bow cheered her on.

Afterwards, sitting in a lump together on the couch, stuffing themselves silly with sandwiches, her friends chimed in on things to add to her list. Slowly but surely getting slower and slower as the warmth from the day moon, the comfort of friends, and food put them to sleep. Adora finished her new task list with “mop” underlined twice listening to birds and snoring and the soft sounds of the world. 

All in all, a perfectly good day.


End file.
